Fans of Stranger Things still have a while to go before we can see Season 5 — the Duffer Brothers’ conclusion to our Hawkins, Indiana, heroes’ battles with the creatures of the Upside Down. However, if you happen to be around London’s West End, you might have the opportunity to catch the theatrical production, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Previews were held in November for the prequel, before it officially opened on December 14, and critics are weighing in on how the record-breaking Netflix series transitions to the stage.
The play is set in 1959 — the year Henry Creel (aka Number One, aka Vecna) and his family move to Hawkins — and it includes a number of characters we’re already familiar with, including Joyce (Isabella Pappas), Hopper (Oscar Lloyd) and Bob (Chris Buckley), in addition to, of course, Henry (Louis McCartney) and Dr. Brenner (Patrick Vaill). Shannon Connellan of Mashable praises the acting and compares the production to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as the productions share multiple crew members. Connellan writes:
